


More Than Word Can Wield The Matter

by WolfAndHound_Archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: First War with Voldemort, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-06
Updated: 2016-02-06
Packaged: 2018-05-18 13:49:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5930677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WolfAndHound_Archivist/pseuds/WolfAndHound_Archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On their three-year anniversary, Sirius and Remus snog and quote Shakespeare and learn that Lily's pregnant and are basically cute.</p>
            </blockquote>





	More Than Word Can Wield The Matter

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Lassenia, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Wolf and Hound](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Wolf_and_Hound), which was created to make stories posted to the Sirius_Black_and_Remus_Lupin Yahoo! mailing list easier to find. However, even though I still love the fandom, I am no longer active in it and do not have the time to maintain it. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in December 2015. I posted an announcement with Open Doors, but we may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on the [Wolf and Hound collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/wolfandhound/profile).

Sirius woke up slowly, dimly aware with some part of his still half- unconscious brain that his arm had gone numb. He tried to move it, and was rewarded with a sleepy little mumble.

Coming back to himself and waking up abruptly, he smiled softly at the grey-brown hair covering Remus' face. He looked so damned cute! Every time he breathed out, a few wisps of hair were caught in the breeze, flying up out of control and tickling Sirius' cheek. The skin all over his body was still thrumming in delightful memory of the previous night, still over-sensitised from the kisses and touches and words of love.

Sirius brushed the hair away and peered lovingly down at Remus' sweet face, wondering for the umpteenth time what he'd ever done in a past life to deserve this degree of heaven. There was a hint of a rosy blush on Remus' face and his lips were parted a little. Brown lashes kissed the beginning curves of his cheeks, and there was a light dusting of stubble on his chin. Sirius was suddenly overcome by a near-debilitating wash of love, and fiercely kissed Remus' temple.

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" he whispered. Remus carried on sleeping, breathing steadily in and out as Sirius ran his hand across his lover's soft hair. "Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, and summer's lease hath all too short a date."

Three years ago, whilst they were in their seventh year at Hogwarts, Sirius and Remus had been thrown together by a nefarious plot. James and Lily worked out early on in the school year that Remus was crazy about Sirius. The only problem -- and it was rather a sizeable one -- was that Sirius had absolutely no idea of his friend's feelings. They managed to get around this with an anonymous Valentine; it intrigued Sirius, and when he eventually (much to the relief of the conspirators, who had no idea that such an intelligent person could be so bloody dense) worked out that Remus had sent it, he fell just as badly.

The Valentine had been a Shakespeare sonnet. Remus loved theatre and poetry and beautiful words, and Sirius had become a bit of a Shakespeare buff himself over the years. The words and imagery and tone of his work were just stunning, and so fitting with their love, Sirius thought.

He tucked a strand of hair behind Remus' ear, then leaned over to nip it lightly with his teeth and whisper, "Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, and often is his gold complexion dimmed; and every fair from fair sometimes declines, by chance or nature's changing course untrimmed. But thy eternal summer shall not fade, nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st, nor shall Death brag thou wand'rest in his shade, when in eternal lines to time thou grow'st."

Sirius drew in a sharp breath when he felt a feathery touch of lips on his cheek. "You're awake," he said accusingly, embarrassed that Remus had caught him in a very unmanly, soppy moment. "You could've let me finish..."

"So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee," Remus said softly. "Now kiss me properly."

Sirius felt Remus' lips curve up into a smile that matched his own as he pressed them together, then opened his mouth and initiated a slow dance of tongues, each movement triggering what felt like nuclear reactions all over his body. He held onto Remus' face as if his life depended on it, kissing his mouth fervently whilst pressing the pads of his fingertips in, skin on skin, reading Remus' goosebumps like Braille.

Remus squirmed. "Siri--mmph!" His word was cut off by another kiss, and he eventually resorted to wriggling away and falling to the carpeted floorboards. "Ow," he muttered, rubbing his backside.

"Can I do that?" Sirius asked, looking rather much like a cheeky schoolboy. Remus tried to look disapproving, but he knew better than to attempt battle with one of Sirius' smiles. He sighed in resignation and mirrored Sirius' grin as best he could.

"No."

Sirius pouted. "Why not? Why won't you let me kiss you?"

"Because you haven't brushed your teeth and your breath would peel paint and you taste like hell."

"I taste like **you** ," Sirius reminded him. "And you haven't brushed yours either."

"I'm going now." He headed to the door. Sirius flopped back on the pillows and just drank in the sight. Remus was wearing black boxer shorts that sat low on his hips, a stark contrast to the golden tan of his back. In turn, **that** contrasted with the white of his scar. He was so shy about it, and it had taken more pleading than Sirius cared to remember to get him to go shirtless on their recent holiday to France. The scar reached over the right side of his upper back and shoulder, creeping its white and completely hairless fingers up onto the back of his neck, an eternal reminder that Mother Nature could be a right bitch if you caught her at the wrong time of the month.

He heard the faint sound of the shower running, and scrambled out of bed as quickly as he could.

~+~

A brief dalliance in the huge bathtub and a not-quite-so-brief one in the bedroom afterwards put Sirius in a very chipper mood. Remus, sitting on the bed in jeans and a t-shirt and pulling his socks on, shook his head in a mixture of disbelief and amusement; Sirius had been combing his long hair for fifteen minutes, trying as hard as he possibly could to put every strand in a specific point in space so it looked as though he'd made no effort at all.

"Sweet," Remus said in half-exasperation. "Be not proud of those two eyes which starlike sparkle in their skies; nor be you proud that you can see all hearts your captives, yours set free; be you not proud of that rich hair which wantons with the love-sick air; whenas that ruby which you wear, sink from the tip of your soft ear, will last to be a precious stone when all your world of beauty's gone."

Sirius blinked, and Remus laughed inwardly. **That's confused the vain bugger!** he thought. Sirius was so used to Shakespeare that it took a while to digest it whenever Remus quoted another poet.

"What was that?" he asked, drawing his brows together as he tried to process the words.

"Don't be proud of your gorgeous eyes. Don't get stuck-up simply because you could have any person in the world if you wanted them. Don't be proud of your hair, which is so beautiful it seems to flirt with people's emotions."

Sirius tried a glare, and put his hands on his hips rather girlishly. "And why not?"

"Because," Remus said quietly, "it's inconstant. It won't last forever." He got to his feet and went over to the mirror, then entwined their fingers together so that the plain gold bands they'd swapped the year before lay beside one another. "These rings will last much longer than your looks." Sirius' indignant expression melted as he realised that Remus was trying to talk seriously. He raised their clasped hands and kissed the rings.

Remus looked him dead in the eye. "I suppose you do have a reason to be vain. You're **beyond** beauty, I wonder every day what I've done to deserve you. But still... it won't last forever. You should find something else to love about yourself."

"The only thing I love about myself more than, well, **myself** is that I have you."

Remus hesitated. "I think I'm going to cry," he said with a sheepish smile. Sirius laughed, and they kissed like there was no tomorrow.

"By the way," Sirius murmured as his hands roamed Remus' body, "happy Valentine's Day."

"That was yesterday. Today's the fifteenth."

"I know. Today is **my** Valentine's Day, because this is our anniversary and I love you." Sirius was taller than Remus by about two inches, so when Remus bowed his head, Sirius couldn't see his eyes. He put his fingers under the now stubble-less chin and raised it, then kissed the beginnings of the salty drops off Remus' eyelashes. "You're such a sap," he teased gently.

"And you..." Remus emphasised the word by poking Sirius hard in the chest, "...are the vainest, most narcissistic, loving, beautiful, wonderful, stuck-up, exasperating, beautiful..."

"You said that one."

"...most conceited person I know."

"You say vain and exasperating like it's a bad thing."

Sirius flashed his most charming smile, and Remus hid his eyes dramatically. "Don't look at me like that!" he pleaded. "I'll just have to jump you again."

"Aaaaand... that prospect is supposed to **deter** me from smiling at you?"

"Have you forgotten Jay and Lily are supposed to be calling?"

"Oh," Sirius said dejectedly as he remembered. "Dammit."

"And we don't want them to see us in the living room again, do we?"

Sirius' eyebrows shot up and he grinned mischievously. "Well, I thought that was sort of a turn on."

"Sirius!"

"What?" he shot back. "Don't pretend you didn't see the way Lily was looking at us. She thought it was sexy too!"

"She Flooed her head into our fireplace only to find your arse bobbing up and down in the air two feet from her face whilst you shagged me on the rug," Remus said evenly. "Of course she thought it was sexy. She's female, after all, and you're widely recognised as the owner of the finest arse in Godric's Hollow."

"Ahem."

"Sorry, the world."

"Better." Once more, he took Remus hand and kissed it. "What time did they say they were calling?"

"Eleven."

Sirius checked his watch. "Three... two... one..." and then they heard Lily's voice calling their names. Lily was always punctual (much to James' annoyance; he was more the dawdling type).

Sirius and Remus ran downstairs into the living room, and sat down on the (much misused) rug.

"Hi!" she said, smiling at her friends. "Happy anniversary!"

"Thanks, Lil," Remus said. "You look all tanned!! How's the holiday?"

"Going great," she said. "I wish James would try to speak Spanish, though. He seems to think they'll understand him if he speaks English with a Spanish accent."

"Everyone speaks English anyway," Sirius said nonchalantly. "Where is Jay?"

"Here!" James said, as his head popped out of the flames too. "Happy Valentine's Day!" he said cheerily. "As soon as we get back from Spain we're throwing a joint party for you."

"Yay!" Sirius said happily, then added, "Joint party?"

"Never mind," James said mysteriously. "Hey, Sirius, did you see that Harpies-Puddlemere match on Sunday? I got the scores in the paper, but I had to miss the game."

Remus and Lily didn't care too much for Quidditch -- at least, not with the passion the other two reserved for the sport -- so they left them to it.

"What did you get for Valentine's Day from James, then?" Remus asked, as the other two immersed themselves in Quidditch league talk. They heard him, though, and James turned to kiss his wife's temple, smiling a secret little smile.

"What?" Sirius asked suspiciously. "What did you get her, Jay? Was it that leather bra we saw in...?"

"No!" James made a huge show of sounding horrified, but Lily just rolled her eyes.

There was a pause. "So?" Remus asked impatiently. "What did you get for Lily, Jay?"

Lily and James exchanged a last secret glance, then James said through a broad smile, "A baby."

"A **baby**?!" Sirius and Remus yelled in unison.

"You're pregnant, Lil?" Remus asked incredulously, at the same time as Sirius bellowed, "James Potter, you lean, mean, shagging machine!! Haven't you heard of contraception!?"

Lily fell about laughing (as much as one can fall about when only one's head is showing). "Of course we have. But..." she blushed prettily, still shy about discussing such things with her friends. "Well, we've been married almost a year. We just thought a baby would complete our lives, right Jamie?"

"Right," he agreed.

"Wow," Sirius said weakly. "A baby? When's it due?"

"End of July sometime, or the beginning of August," James said. He was beaming ecstatically; so was Lily."

Remus shook his head in wonderment. "Lucky kid. Growing up with parents like you, it's going to be the happiest child ever."

Lily suddenly looked as if she was going to cry, although she was still grinning like a loon. "Thanks, Rem."

"Thought of any names yet?" Sirius asked, not-so-surreptitiously pointing to himself. James laughed.

"Sirius Potter? I think not."

Sirius pretended to pout. "What, then?"

"If it's a girl, we like Eowyn, or perhaps Hermione. But if it's a boy..." She looked at James.

"Harry," he said.

"Harry Potter," Remus said musingly. "Sounds good. I'm so happy for you!"

"Listen, guys," James said, "we have to go, it's a Galleon a minute for international Floo calls. See you next week."

Sirius and Remus waved their friends off, then sat with their backs against the sofa. They felt disorientated, as though they'd been turned upside down and shaken.

"Lily and James, parents?" Remus said softly. "I can't believe it..."

"Makes me feel so damn old," Sirius said.

Remus saw a chance and grabbed it. "To me, fair friend, you can never be old, for as you were when first your eye I eyed, such seems your beauty still."

Sirius smiled. Their old game of quoting love poetry was comforting, like a favourite blanket or stuffed toy or pet. He replied, "Three winters cold have from the forests shook three summers' pride, three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turned in process of the seasons have I seen, three April perfumes in three hot Junes burned, since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green."

Remus touched Sirius' cheek lightly and sat up a little so their faces were very close together. "Ah, yet doth beauty, like a dial hand, steal from his figure, and no pace perceived; so your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand, hath motion, and mine eye may be deceived; for fear of which, hear this, thou age unbred: Ere you were born was beauty's summer dead."

The poem finished, they sat in silence for another moment or two. Eventually, Sirius whispered, "I love that one. Turns my insides to mush."

"It's true," Remus murmured, his breath warm on Sirius' face. "By the time this little Eowyn or Hermione or Harry Potter is old enough to know you properly, you'll be so different to the way you are now. I can only assume your looks will fade, because..."

"Because?" Sirius prompted him after a brief hesitation.

"Because to get any more perfect than you already are, you'd have to die and become an angel."

They lapsed into silence again, lost in thoughts of love and friendship and futures.

"Will you still love me when I'm all liver-spotted and bald?" Sirius asked eventually.

Remus grinned and kissed him, which seemed to be answer enough, but then he added, "Doubt thou the stars are fire, doubt thou the sun doth move, doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love. For where thou art, there is the world itself, and where thou art not, desolation."

Sirius suddenly put his hand on his heart and thrust the other out dramatically. "Oh, Remus!" he said.

Remus looked quizzical. "Um, what?"

"Shut up, I'm trying to free-form!"

"Oh. Knock yourself out." He waved a hand, motioning for Sirius to go ahead.

"Oh, Remus! You're not... famous! You're a werewolf... uh... what rhymes with wolf?"

"Gulf?"

"And how am I supposed to fit 'gulf' into a heartfelt love poem?"

"Oh, I don't know." He thought quickly. "How about, the gulf that parts our hearts, my love, grows narrower each kiss, and when we are apart, my love, I have to think of this: if I rain kisses on your lips I'll draw you close and near, and maybe one day far from now we'll be as one, my dear."

"Did you just make that up on the spot?"

"Yes," Remus said. He sounded embarrassed. "It's not very good. In fact, it's clichéd and crap. But I promise to try and write you a real poem one of these days."

"Not very good my arse! You're better than me at it."

"Hardly a high mark to shoot for," Remus muttered, then laughed as Sirius rolled him over on the rug and attacked his neck with kisses, growling in a mock-angry way all the time.

"You dirty little werewolf git!"

"Sticks and stones, Sirius..."

"Oh, good idea." Sirius grabbed his wand from the coffee table and pointed it at Remus. "Apologise!"

"No!"

"Take it back, or else!"

"Never! You... dog!"

Both aching with laughter now, Sirius was barely able to get the word 'Rictusempra' out. Remus' giggles increased, and he rolled about on the floor as invisible fingers tickled him.

"Oh... dammit, Sirius, take it off!"

"Apologise!"

"I'm sorry! You're my favourite poet! You know you are!"

"Hmm..." Sirius said, pretending to contemplate the apology. Remus was near-hysterical with laughter.

"Please!"

"All right, Finite Incantatem."

Remus quietened, although he still gave out a breathless little giggle every now and then, and sat beside Sirius, wrapping his arms around his shoulders and resting his head on his chest.

"I love you more than word can wield the matter," he whispered, lifting his head up once more to kiss Sirius' cheek.

And they fell asleep, safe in each other's arms and the knowledge that although it was February, their eternal summer would not fade.

~END~


End file.
